The Product-Design-Engineering Circle of Collaboration
Cross-functional collaboration is a big theme across companies, big and small. However, within that big theme lies an important microcosm called ‘Product-Design-Engineering’ collaboration that is absolutely core to building great products. This is not a new topic if you have been reading Marty Cagan books, but it is equally surprising how difficult or suboptimal this collaboration is at many companies. This hints to the fact that it is easier said than done.
In this edition of Productify, we break down this collaboration into three two-way relationships: i) PM x Engineering, ii) PM x Design, iii) Design x Engineering and dig into the most important elements that make it work.
PM x Engineering Collaboration
Often - it is perceived - that what binds product and engineering together is ‘how’ we build products (i.e feasibility), but it often starts with Why we build products.
Instead of a PM saying “We need this live by x date”, it is more about figuring out together ‘Why we need it live by x date, and if not then what is the realistic timelines?’.
Also, if you do not start with Why, it demotivates the smartest engineers. Engineers and PMs need to start participating in figuring out the Why so that the engineers then figure out the best way for the ‘How’ of it.
If you look at some of the best companies, engineering and product have equal powers at all levels, and most successful products are a collaborative approach between these two teams. Therefore, it all boils down to the great relationship based on mutual trust that takes the business to another level.- Slack’s strong product and engineering collaboration culture
Moreover, Product Manager, even with their best technical understanding, cannot possible estimate the complexity of building something - and hence it is best to leave the approach of how to build something in the most effective manner to engineers.
PMs need to move away from “pushing timelines” to “gathering timelines and communicating upwards”. Similarly engineers need to move away from “tell us what needs to be built in a nice JIRA story” to “Tell us Why it needs to be built and how critical it is, before the What”
Equally, we need to create, in collaboration with product and design, our vision and strategy for the team. So linking the technology and how technology fixes problems for the end customers, and how we are supporting the product vision is really kind of key on kind of team level conversation and communication - Scaling high performing engineering teams, Alex Rashkov, Engineering Manager, Meta
Another aspect where PMs and Engineers can often collaborate and drive is actively figuring out challenges and blockers. Engineers are often blocked by other teams , internally and externally, and PMs can utilise their network to get them unblocked. I have often found this sort of collaboration to be the most successful at fostering a great PM-Engineer relationship.
Also, PMs sometimes wait too long to celebrate success. Often, it is when a feature is live, PMs send good greetings to team members, but if you know how hard it is to code and get something tested, PMs should ideally setup small checkpoints - to celebrate small wins. Example, when code is deployed to staging, or when all test cases have been successfully tested and so on.
Finally, PMs and Engineers relationship has to be more than just work. It is good to take out time, along with design counterparts, to spend time in off-sites, playing team games and also knowing a bit more about each other’s personal and professional ambitions so that the skill and scope for each team member can be properly slotted.
PM X Design Collaboration
Product Manager and Design collaboration is key for effective product discovery and post-delivery review and iterations. Both PM and Designers have a common goal - to deliver the most valuable product for the users in a way that it also adds value to the business.
PMs need to get smarter about how they communicate with designers. PMs need to frame the right problems for designers to solve, rather than give instructions to designers what to do.
PMs x Designer common language should be problems and metrics. If things are not on track, both need to discuss which metric is at risk and how we can work together towards it. Or sometimes even go back to basics: Are we solving the right problem? or Are we solving the problem in best possible manner?
PMs and Designers may have strong conflicting opinions. PMs are often closer to business and Designers pride themselves in being closer to user, and that may leading conflicting aspirations. The best way to resolve conflicts is to check with common metrics, check the goals or if that doesn’t work. - conduct user tests. In the end, the right opinion to follow is the ones that solves customer problem, and business problem.
Design x Engineering Collaboration
Designers and Engineers (mostly) have different styles of approaching their work. Designers are more creative and intuitive in their thinking, while engineers are more analytical and calculated. When these two opposing styles come together, there is a need to set some collaboration techniques that foster and get the best out of both. But what often works more than any technique is Trust.
Have designers and engineers get to know each other before kicking off joint workstreams. As part of get-to-know, setup expectations of giving direct feedback (in future, during collaboration) that is not directed at one’s skill but more at getting the best outcome for the customer and the business.
In early phases of product discovery, ensure that designers involve engineers so that not only the user journey from a usability and value point of view is reviewed together, but also feasibility of how easy it is to get it into market.
Setup Design Walkthrough meetings with cross-functional teams so that different teams with their experience of creating user flows on front-end and back-end can inform right choices.
Job of designers is to facilitate getting to best design outcome, and not just create design themselves. Involving engineers at early stage gets much needed feedback.
Besides cross-functional design review sessions, setup kickoff workshops as well as retrospectives to involve both teams and get their feedback on both ends of the spectrum.
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Source of Image 1, Source of Image 2, Source of Image 3